The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 22, the 326th day of 2011 with 39 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and Venus. Evening stars are Saturn and Mars.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include English novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) in 1819; French statesman and military leader Charles de Gaulle in 1890; Wiley Post, the first pilot to fly solo around the world, in 1898; composers Hoagy Carmichael in 1899 and Benjamin Britten in 1913; comedian Rodney Dangerfield in 1921; actors Geraldine Page in 1924, Robert Vaughn in 1932 (age 79) and Tom Conti in 1941 (age 70); writer/director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam in 1940 (age 71); musician Jesse Colin Young in 1941 (age 70); Guion S. Bluford, Jr., the first African-American astronaut in space, in 1942 (age 69); tennis legend Billie Jean King in 1943 (age 68); actors Richard Kind in 1956 (age 55), Jamie Lee Curtis in 1958 (age 53) and Mariel Hemingway in 1961 (age 50); tennis player Boris Becker in 1967 (age 44); and actor Scarlett Johansson in 1984 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1718, Edward Teach, also known as the pirate Blackbeard, was killed off North Carolina's Outer Banks during a battle with a British navy force.

In 1858, the city of Denver was founded.

In 1935, a Pan American Martin 130 "flying boat" called the China Clipper began regular trans-Pacific mail service. The flight from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines, took 59 hours and 48 minutes.

In 1950, a train wreck in New York City killed 79 people.

In 1954, the Humane Society of the United States was founded.

In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, 46 and in the third year of his first term, was assassinated during a motorcade in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with Kennedy's slaying but was killed before he could go to trial. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the nation's 36th chief executive.

In 1972, the U.S. State Department ended a 22-year ban on U.S. travel to China.

In 1977, the Anglo-French supersonic Concorde jetliner began scheduled flights to New York from London and Paris.

In 1980, film legend Mae West died at the age of 88.

In 1989, newly elected Lebanese President Rene Moawad died in bomb blast that also killed 17 other people in Syrian-patrolled Muslim West Beirut.

In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned after 11 years in office as England's longest-serving leader of the 20th century.

In 1992, 10 women who had worked for or with Sen. Bob Packwood accused the Oregon Republican of unwelcome sexual advances.

In 1993, Mexico's Senate approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In 1997, New Zealanders Robert Hamill and Phil Stubbs arrived in Barbados from the Canary Islands in their boat, Kiwi Challenger, after 41 days, one hour and 55 minutes -- a record for rowing across the Atlantic.

In 2002, at least 100 people died in riots in northern Nigeria sparked by a religious controversy over the Miss World beauty pageant.

In 2004, an African Union helicopter rescued 45 aid workers, 30 of them from the Save the Children organization, amid renewed fighting at Al-Fashir in Sudan's Darfur region.

In 2005, an Arab-American student, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted in Alexandria, Va., of conspiring with al-Qaida to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush and hijack airplanes.

Also in 2005, Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany's chancellor. She was the first woman and first person from East Germany to lead the country.

In 2006, Baghdad was put under an emergency curfew after a 24-hour wave of mortar and bomb attacks killed at least 160 people in a Shiite neighborhood.

In 2007, the United Nations lowered its estimates of the number of AIDS-infected people worldwide, indicating that the syndrome's growth had slowed for the first time.

In 2009, a suspected overloaded ferry capsized and sank in rough waters off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 26 people but 232 others were rescued by passing boats.

In 2010, close to 400 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a panic-driven stampede on a densely crowded suspension bridge during Cambodia's Water Festival in Phnom Penh. Survivors said they were wedged into the crowd of living and dead for hours. Reports said the panic was triggered by the normal swaying of the bridge.

A thought for the day: U.S. President John Kennedy said, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."